L.A. Mozart Orchestra Shows Polish Under Carver’s Bold Direction

Now starting a sixth season as music director of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Lucinda Carver continues to raise the ensemble’s sights and polish its technique. Its first concert of 1997-98, Saturday night at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, confirmed the orchestra’s now-consistent musical virtues; it played handsomely and engagingly.

Carver, a vigorous, thorough conductor, led a bright program consisting of Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” Overture, the D-major Cello Concerto by Haydn, Bartok’s familiar Romanian Folk Dances and Schubert’s Sixth, or “Little,” C-major Symphony.

If she was overly controlling, as some have said, such an approach paid off in illuminating details and in the sense in every work of a well-planned scenario being carried out. Carver makes musical thought manifest.

The “Figaro” Overture is exposing and trap-filled, but Carver’s reading exhibited only joy: quick but unhurried, breathless but articulate, songful. Closing the evening, Schubert’s Sixth, plenty fast yet expansive of statement, revealed its treasures in both sweep and detail. Each movement told its story cogently and contributed to the panorama; each one seemed short. The orchestra shone.

Cecilia Tsan, a young Frenchwoman of Chinese parentage, brought uncompromising musical character and a towering technique to Haydn’s Second Cello Concerto, highlighting both its climaxes and its inner workings. Carver and the orchestra provided solid, attentive support.